EHRs: an Evolving Market

Hospitals and physician practices have implemented electronic health records in larger numbers and more quickl, than dentists or dental care organizations. That leading edge of the EHR adoption curve has shown that the market for that software is undergoing upheavals. In a survey of 17,000 health care providers, seventeen percent were considering switching to a different EHR software in the next year.

EHR vendors say that the evolving meaningful use criteria, the increasing range of users and specialties and the increasing sophistication of cloud technology has driven many changes in usability, functionality and design.

But one key takeaway for dentists is this one: 79% of healthcare providers said they did not adequately assess their own needs before selecting an EHR vendor. That’s a truly avoidable mistake.

Furthermore, 77% said the software did not match the needs of their medical practice or specialty. And 44% said vendors were unresponsive to questions, complaints and problems. From resources on DentalSoftwareAdvisor as well as the many resources developed for other healthcare providers, dentists will be able to make informed decisions and hopefully avoid much of this dissatisfaction.

Lessons Learned:

Many medical practices that adopted and use EHRs are dissatisfied with the software and/or the vendor.

Assessing daily needs is a key step in EHR adoption, and one that can lead to satisfaction or problems down the road.

Dentists can learn from the medical EHR market and environment and demand the features and functionality that they need.